E-Paper
Air India mulls ₹10,000-cr debt rejig under RBI’s new scheme
NEW DELHI: Air India, which logged its first operational profit in 10 years last week, is looking to rejig debt worth ₹10,000 crore under the scheme for sustainable
NEW DELHI: Air India, which logged its first operational profit in 10 years last week, is looking to rejig debt worth ₹10,000 crore under the scheme for sustainable restructuring of bad assets floated by the Reserve Bank.
To further strengthen the ability of lenders to tackle stressed assets and provide an avenue for reworking the financial structure of entities facing genuine problems, the central bank has introduced ‘S4A’.
The Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A), introduced in June this year, came against the backdrop of rising concerns over NPAs in the banking system.
Sources said Air India is actively looking at the possibility of availing ‘S4A’ to rejig debt to the tune of at least ₹10,000 crore.
In case the proposal gets a green signal, it would be first time that a public sector undertaking avails the scheme.
Air India, which has been in the red for the past many years, has posted an operating profit of ₹105 crore in the last fiscal — the first time since it got merged with Indian Airlines a decade ago. The carrier is also working on ways to bring down its overall debt burden, especially with respect to significant interest outgo.
Currently, the airline’s debt is estimated to be more than ₹50,000 crore. A consortium of 19 lenders have extended loans to the national carrier.
